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CHAPTER 11

Recalling the Wonders of the Lord.1Love the LORD, your God, therefore, and keep his charge, statutes, ordinances, and commandments always.a2Recall today that it was not your children, who have neither known nor seen the discipline of the LORD, your God—his greatness, his strong hand and outstretched arm;b3the signs and deeds he wrought in the midst of Egypt, on Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and on all his land;c4what he did to the Egyptian army and to their horses and chariots, engulfing them in the waters of the Red Sea* as they pursued you,d so that the LORD destroyed them even to this day;
5what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
6and what he did to the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up out of the midst of Israel, with their families and tents and every living thing that belonged to them—e7but it was you who saw with your own eyes all these great deeds that the LORD has done.

The Gift of Rain.8f So keep all the commandments I give you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to possess,
9and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10The land you are to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you would sow your seed and then water it by hand,* as in a vegetable garden.
11g No, the land into which you are crossing to take possession is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in rain from the heavens,
12a land which the LORD, your God, looks after; the eyes of the LORD, your God, are upon it continually through the year, from beginning to end.

13*h If, then, you truly listen to my commandments which I give you today, loving and serving the LORD, your God, with your whole heart and your whole being,
14I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain* and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in;
15and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat and be satisfied.
16i But be careful lest your heart be so lured away that you serve other gods and bow down to them.j17For then the anger of the LORD will flare up against you and he will close up the heavens, so that no rain will fall, and the soil will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

Need for Fidelity.18k Therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them on your arm as a sign, and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
19Teach them to your children, speaking of them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up,
20and write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,
21so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, you and your children may live on in the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give them.

22l For if you are careful to observe this entire commandment I am giving you, loving the LORD, your God, following his ways exactly, and holding fast to him,
23the LORD will dispossess all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24m Every place where you set foot shall be yours: from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea,* shall be your territory.
25None shall stand up against you; the LORD, your God, will spread the fear and dread of you through any land where you set foot, as he promised you.n

Blessing and Curse.26o See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
27a blessing for obeying the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I give you today;
28a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, but turn aside from the way I command you today, to go after other gods, whom you do not know.p29When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and possess, then on Mount Gerizim you shall pronounce the blessing,q on Mount Ebal, the curse.*30(These are beyond the Jordan, on the other side of the western road in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal beside the oak of Moreh.)r31Now you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you. When, therefore, you take possession of it and settle there,
32be careful to observe all the statutes and ordinances that I set before you today.

* [11:10] By hand: lit., “by foot,” probably referring to a kind of mechanism for irrigation from the Nile.

* [11:13–15] Here as elsewhere Moses shifts between speaking of the Lord in the third person and speaking for the Lord in the first person.

* [11:14] The early rain: the rains which begin in October or November and continue intermittently throughout the winter. The late rain: the heavy showers of March and April. In Palestine crops are sown in autumn and harvested in spring and summer.

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